Southern Pacific-Cotton Belt, Freight Agents Office, Union Pacific Milepost 174.00, 122 West Jefferson Avenue, Harlingen

Source document Quoted word for word from HAER TX-73. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.

Located on the south side of Harlingen, Texas, the Southern Pacific Railroad's Freight Agent's Office is a one-story stucco building with a Spanish tile roof. Designed as a vernacular interpretation of the Spanish Colonial Revival Style in the offices of chief engineer, the building originally was constructed by company bridge and building crews in The office is an intact, although altered, example of a common building type that was erected by SP during the early twentieth century. Capitalizing on Harlingen's emergence as a transportation hub for South Texas' cotton, vegetable, and citrus growers, SP constructed a large and y passenger depot - also in the Spanish Colonial Revival Style - adjacent to, and east of, the Freight Agent's Office.

Passenger service to Harlingen was discontinued in and the passenger depot was used as a freight office until when it was razed. After the demolition of the passenger depot, freight office functions were moved to the Freight Agent's Office and remained there until The building was closed in that year, and control of Harlingen's rail traffic was transferred to Houston, as part of the SP merger with the Union Pacific Railroad. SOUTHERN PACIFIC-COTTON BELT, FREIGHT AGENT'S OFFICE HAER No. (Page 2) PART I. HISTORICAL INFORMATION A.

Physical History Date of Erection: Architect: Office of the Chief Engineer, Texas and Louisiana Lines, Southern Pacific Railway Company, Houston, Texas Original and Subsequent Owners: Southern Pacific Railway Company Union Pacific Railway Company (1996-present) Builders, Contractors and Suppliers: Southern Pacific Bridge and Building Crews Original Plans and Construction Drawings: No original architectural plans or drawings were located during the research investigations. Alterations and Additions: The building was altered in about and when masonry arches on the north and south facades and a decorative gable vent in the west facade were infilled, window and door openings reduced, window sash changed, and ceiling, wall, and other interior finishes altered.

Additional changes to office communications and other equipment were made at indeterminate dates. B. Historical Context: Harlingen developed as the transportation hub for Texas' Lower Rio Grande Valley in the first three decades of the twentieth century. However, its emergence involved a rather complex chronology of ownership as well as an intense competition among several small railway companies in the area that occurred from the through the These companies eventually became subsidiaries of one of two corporate rivals-the South Pacific in and the Missouri Pacific (Mo Pac) in A MoPac-owned company by the late but an independent company in the first decade of the century, the St.

Louis, Brownsville & Mexico Railway was the first to reach Harlingen in Perhaps because of this fact, Harlingen's earliest railroad and its impetus for development have often been attributed locally to MoPac, while its continued growth is associated with the Southern Pacific - both of which were associated with the city well after it was founded. The individual responsible for the establishment of Harlingen in the same year that the arrived as Lon C. Hill, a wealthy attorney and entrepreneur from the South Texas town of Beeville. Prior to Hill's entry into the region, the Rio Grande Valley SOUTHERN PACIFIC-COTTON BELT, FREIGHT AGENT'S OFFICE HAER No.

(Page 3) was a sparsely settled area comprised primarily of small farms and large sheep ranches, which were connected to each other by an old military road and stage route that paralleled the river from Brownsville, a town with a population of to Rio Grande City (Carnestolenoas), 135 miles to the west (Thompson 50; and Hill 1). The first railroad to be built in the Rio Grande Valley was a short-line section of narrow- gauge track that the U.S. government constructed during the summer of It ran from Brazos Island to White's Ranch on the Rio Grande, where it connected with steamboat service to Fort Brown. It was operational for several years but was eventually dismantled.

Other narrow-gauge lines were established during this period, but all were financially troubled and most were abandoned by the turn of the century (Thompson In the nearest standard-gauge railhead in South Texas was at the town of Alice. The line was operated by the San Antonio & Aransas Pass Railway (SA&AP) and was connected to Rio Grande City by an unpaved road. Travelers entering or leaving the valley commonly used this north-south route. Another standard-gauge rail line located between Corpus Christi and Laredo was operated by the Texas-Mexican Railway, but it was built north of the Rio Grande Valley.

Other rail lines in the area included a narrow-gauge line from Point Isabel to Brownsville, which was still operational at the turn of the century and was run by the Rio Grande & Pecos Railroad along with another line from Corpus Christi to Brownsville (Allhands There was no east-west rail line through the Rio Grande Valley. Rail traffic was typically routed from Brownsville into Mexico, through Matamoros to Monterey, and up to Laredo, Texas, on the Mexico Oriental Interoceanic & International (Ferrocarril Mexicano Interoceano Oriental e Internacional), commonly referred to as the Mexican National Railway (Allhands Most of the commerce form the area at the time was with Mexico, and it was transported using ferries or barges.

There was transportation by ferry from the Texas coast, but it was not without interruption. There was a small port called Point Isabel, which had a population of between 300 and 400 persons, but it was hampered by not having large dock facilities. Ocean-going vessels had to anchor offshore in the Laguna Madre, and all cargo had to be transferred to small craft, ferried to land, and then again reloaded onto ferries or barges for shipment upriver (Hill 1). Lon C. Hill is said to have initially entered "the Valley" in to spend several weeks looking for agricultural lands and potential town sites. Although few parts of the region were under cultivation at the time of his arrival, Hill appears to have been convinced that there were agricultural and investment opportunities there.

His interest in opening up the area to widespread cultivation and, consequently, the establishment of a regional economy that could sustain new town development, is suggested by his having traveled several times to and from SOUTHERN PACIFIC-COTTON BELT, FREIGHT AGENT'S OFFICE HAER No. (Page 4) Beeville - the location of the nearest Texas Agricultural Experiment Station - with soil samples for testing by the local agent (Allhands Within three years, Hill, along with a group of other like-minded entrepreneurs, pursued plans to bring a railroad into the Lower Rio Grande Valley. The arrival of a railroad was crucial to the success of farming and town site development in the region, and to the influx of a larger Anglo population.

The interests of people such as Hill, who in just a few years had in his possession more than acres of valley property, which had been purchased at prices ranging from 50 cents to a dollar an acre, was responsible for generating the competition between two small railroad companies - the and the SA&AP Railroads.

By the mid-l these two companies, in turn, represented the interests of larger railroad corporations, including the Gulf Coast Lines and the Missouri Pacific, as well as the Southern Pacific, whose vast investments ultimately were responsible for opening up what came to be known in the second and third decades of the twentieth century as the "Magic Valley" (Reed The was chartered in and, after completing the construction of several line sections to the Rio Grande Valley, built a line to connect with a railhead operated by the Texas-Mexican Railway, some 15 miles west of Corpus Christi.

The constructed rail stations at 10-mile intervals along its route, and was the first railroad to reach Harlingen, San Benito, and Brownsville, all in A subsidiary of the New Orleans, Texas & Mexico Railway Company (NOT&M) later operated the company. NOT &M operated along with three other short-line companies under the collective moniker of the Gulf Coast Lines They included the Beaumont, Sour Lake & Western Railway Company; the Orange & Northwestern Railway Company; and the San Benito & Rio Grande Valley Railway Company. All of these companies, as well as another railway, the International & Great Northern, later were purchased by the Missouri Pacific in (Reed ). Mo Pac, to be compliant with Texas law, operated the companies under their chartered names until the (Zlatkovich 84 ).

The GCL was important as a rail connection from Brownsville to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and as a means of carrying freight out of the valley to the north and east, which became very profitable with the growth of agriculture in the region (Reed ). The SA&AP was incorporated in by San Antonio investors who wanted a connection to the Gulf of Mexico. Construction, from to resulted in a main line from Kenedy through Beeville, into Corpus Christi, and a branch line to Aransas Pass and Rockport. Another main line was built, by from Kenedy to Houston, and another branch line from Skidmore to Alice in the same year. In SP purchased a majority share in the SA&AP and, to be compliant with Texas law, SOUTHERN PACIFIC-COTTON BELT, FREIGHT AGENT'S OFFICE HAER No.

(Page 5) allowed the company to operate under its chartered name (Hofsommer The SA&AP also provided rail connections to Houston, Dallas, and Lake Charles, Louisiana. In SP announced its intent, through SA&AP's management, to extend service from Alice into the Rio Grande Valley with a station in Brownsville. It began construction of a line section from Alice, its southernmost Texas terminus, southward toward Falfurrias and into the valley. The project, however, was not completed beyond the town's limits because of a shortfall in funding.

SP encountered further complications when the Texas Railroad Commission ordered, that same year, that it divest itself of stock control of the SA&AP - an action that some historians suggest was made to protect NOT&M and interest in the S (Reed Hill had a close relationship with Uriah Lott, an officer of the and together they formed the Lon C.

Hill Town and Improvement Company, just in time for the arrival of the railway company in (Allhands Hill had the town site surveyed, platted, and incorporated and paid for the grading and paving of 10 miles of streets (Allhands A writer for the Brownsville Herald noted that same year that the "Survey of Harlingen [is] progressing nicely, all lots east of the track [are] about finished, [and] ten miles of streets are now cleared" (Brownsville Herald, April 18, Although Hill's new town was first known as Six Shooter Junction, it became Harlingen, named for a Dutch seaport where members of Uriah Lott's family had departed for America decades earlier. The town also was known in the vernacular as Lon C.

Hill's Town, and by more pejorative names, including Holland Gin, Nowlin Gin, and Dutch City (Allhands Although small groves had been cultivated earlier, the first important cash crop for the valley was initiated ten years after the arrival of the railroad, when John H. Shary planted citrus on a 6,000-acre tract. Shary acquired adjacent acreage and developed what he named Sharyland and West Sharyland (Allhands Other cash crops in the region included corn, cotton, and sugar cane, which had been grown in small tracts along the river since the early nineteenth century. The arrival in the valley of the in and the advent of large-scale, mechanized irrigation by significantly expanded cash crop production.

A variety of vegetables, including onions, cabbage, melons, green beans, lettuce, and potatoes, also were brought into large-scale cultivation during this period (Thompson The corporate leadership of SP, in the years following the action of the TRC in which included a court-ordered divestiture of the SA&AP, continued to monitor development activities in South Texas, but acknowledged that its competition was "thoroughly entrenched in the Rio Grande Valley" (Hofsommer This attitude changed when Congress passed the Transportation Act of SOUTHERN PACIFIC-COTTON BELT, FREIGHT AGENT'S OFFICE HAER No.

(Page 6) The legislation gave the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) "authority in virtually every area of railroading, including rates and services, the routing of freight, extensions, abandonments and consolidations of lines, and [the] joint use of terminals and equipment" (Union Pacific SP petitioned the ICC to reacquire the SA&AP and complete its original plan to gain access to the Lower Rio Grande Valley. The company was granted permission and took control of the SA&AP in April SP began construction in the following year of a line section from Falfurrias westward through Edinburg and into McAllen, and then southeastward through Harlingen into Brownsville.

The company arrived in Harlingen in late spring of Freight service commenced on October 20, and passenger service on November 10 of that year (Hofsommer Advertisements run by SP in the Houston, San Antonio, and Brownsville newspapers in late October and early November primed the public for the inauguration of passenger and freight service "Into Brownsville in the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas," and described the route as "Another Vision Realized." The writer's copy also included the following announcement: On November the first regularly scheduled passenger and freight service of the Southern Pacific Lines will be established into Brownsville - the terminus of recent Southern Pacific extensions into the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas.

Fast, comfortable "over-night" passenger service will be effective between San Antonio and Brownsville and Houston and Brownsville, thereby connecting the Lower Rio Grande Valley with two great Gateways on the famous "Sunset" ContinentalRoute (Southern Pacific Hofsommer The successful 23-year monopoly on rail service to Harlingen and the Lower Rio Grande Valley had come to an end. The GCL was purchased by MoPac in The following year, SP leased its Texas and Louisiana holdings to another railway company-the Texas & New Orleans (T&NO). MoPac and SP - through the T&NO or directly - initiated an intense period of competition for control of rail transportation during the latter part of the decade.

Over a span of two years - from to - MoPac purchased seven area short-line companies as feeders for its South Texas traffic to Louisiana (Reed SP purchased additional rights-of-way and land in the valley based largely upon projected revenues from new town development as well as future traffic in agricultural produce and finished goods. It became a particularly lucrative business. Railway- owned or affiliated real estate companies platted towns. Lots were sold to settlers and merchants, and warehouses were constructed on lots that remained under the ownership of the railroad. In addition to storage space for produce, services such as SOUTHERN PACIFIC-COTTON BELT, FREIGHT AGENT'S OFFICE HAER No.

(Page 7) weighing, packaging, refrigeration, and shipping were under the control of either the SP or the T&NO.

The activities of both companies initiated what has been described as "the period of [the] greatest land company development programs in the Valley." Train loads of land parties from northern states were reputed to have been brought by the company "almost daily during the winter," and thousands of small vegetable tracts and newly planted citrus orchards "were purchased by individuals who were brought there on excursion by land men" (Hill interest in developing the area was underscored by what its agents and officials often reported to company shareholders - that "the richest and most productive soil of any agricultural section of the country" was located there (Hofsommer SP vigorously participated in the sponsorship of an ensuing rush of Anglo immigrants to settle the area.

One of the best examples of this was the company's land purchase and development of the town site of Elsa. Located "at Mile 5 North and 16Vi West" of Harlingen on the company's westward line section into Edinburg, it was advertised by the Elsa Townsite Company, which was incorporated by the railroad, as "The New Town" and "the Planned Valley Town." Announcing an opening sale on March 2, and operating from a main office in the American Company Building in the nearby town of Mercedes, as well as a field office at the new town site, company real estate agents promoted the new development.

Elsa had "modern passenger and freight depots, wide streets, restricted residence and business districts, industrial sites, parking sheds already erected, parks, boulevards, [and] water works" (Allhands Designed, surveyed, and staked out by Edward A. Wood Company, Plan Engineers, Elsa also was described in company advertisements as "located in the-center of [a], rich vegetable district," with the "largest truck farms in the Valley ..

.in [its] vicinity." The company promised potential buyers that it would be "the largest town on the Southern Pacific Extension between Edinburg and Harlingen" (Allhands In addition, the purchase of property was in a "no auction sale" with "all lots tagged and marked with [a] price." Buyers were told by agents to simply "Select your lot, pull [the] tag and take [it] to our office on the ground[ s] ... Pay one-fourth cash and sign a contract ...

[The] balance [is] payable [in] 6, 12, [or] 18 months." The town site parcels ranged from $75 to for residential lots, to for business lots, and included lots for a "Mexican Colony" to house a local domestic and agricultural labor force (Allhands While efforts appear to have been particularly focused on real estate, T&NO's activities were described by one historian as particularly aimed at the development of SOUTHERN PACIFIC-COTTON BELT, FREIGHT AGENT'S OFFICE HAER No. (Page 8) "local business in the 'Magic Valley' [with] agricultural agents and sales representatives [who] spread [the] ...news fat and wide, offer[ed] fascinating programs and instructive pamphlets [and who] promoted the institution of a significant canning industry.

Consequently, much of T&NO's increase in freight volume [from onward] came from [freight] billings [from the Valley]" (Hofsommer The establishment of rail facility at Harlingen typically reflected its development strategy for other towns in the valley. Block Eighteen, bounded by Jefferson, Adams, First and A streets, was chosen as the site for operations and passenger facilities. Block Seventeen, bounded by Jefferson, Adams, First and Second streets, was staked out for the Harlingen Freight Depot. SP-owned parcels were 150 feet in depth and located on either side of the centerline of a 180-foot right-of-way. They became the sites for more than twenty-five wooden sheds, which were built over the next decade.

Former SP employee Paul Betts, in charge of train and station operations at Harlingen later in the said that some of the sheds were "used by cotton seed oil mills who were heavy users of the railroad. There was [also] one for a freezer plant that was located along the track ... and a packing shed [that was] used to pack citrus produce" (Betts personal communication). SP company maps from the period showed numbered buildings that were located on either side of the track between First and Fifth streets. They were identified as "Veg[etable] Shed[ s]" and shown along with what an SP draftsman later labeled the "DP & FA [or District Passenger & Freight Agent's] Office" (Office of the Chief Engineer, Southern Pacific Company, Houston, Texas. Area map.

"Station to Station Texas and Louisiana Lines," November 27, The Freight Agent's Office was the first SP building to be constructed in the city. Erected on Jefferson Street by company bridge and building crews, the office appears to have opened without much fanfare. No photographs of the building are known to have been taken after it was completed. Increased freight shipment sales and telegraph communications were important services that SP brought to Harlingen. Betts suggested that this was one reason that the Freight Agent's Office might have been erected before a passenger depot. Besides handling sales and shipments, "most railroad agents were telegraphers. They sent telegrams and helped people keep in contact with each other...

They were pretty important and the railroad [facilities] became the hub of the Harlingen community... [as] was true [for] any small community that had a railroad" (Betts personal communication). A large and ornate two-story passenger depot was finally constructed by the company by and, along with the Freight Agent's Office, was recorded by agents of the Sanborn Insurance Company when they first prepared maps of the city in SOUTHERN PACIFIC-COTTON BELT, FREIGHT AGENT'S OFFICE HAER No. (Page 9) (Sanborn Map Company, Insurance Maps, Harlingen, A year later an unknown photographer produced a photograph looking west-northwest, which was printed in the Supplement to Harlingen's Valley Morning Star.

Although it showed two new buildings, the caption that accompanied the image did not comment on the facilities. Referencing the City of Harlingen and not the railroad, the text inferred that the depot and office were illustrative of "A Modern City For Today, Building For Tomorrow" (Supplement to the Valley Morning Star, Jacinta-Harlingen Publishing Company, Harlingen, Texas, The Office of the Chief Engineer in Houston selected the Spanish Colonial Revival architectural style for the Harlingen Freight Agent's Office and Passenger Depot.

Although related to the Mission Revival style of the late nineteenth century, the Spanish Colonial Revival or Spanish Eclectic style became popular in California, Arizona, Texas, and Florida following the Panama-California Exposition in (McAlester Designed by architect Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue, the exposition and its wide publicity inspired a whole generation of architects to design projects based upon Spanis and Moorish models. SP and other railroad company architects and engineers made wide use ofthe style for several classes of buildings from onward.

Publications of the American Railway Engineering Association such as its Maintenance of Way Cyclopedia contributed to the popularization ofthe architectural style among company practitioners during the period with its publishing of photographs of Spanish Colonial Revival passenger and freight depots as well as small service buildings (Maintenance ofWay Cyclopedia, American Railway Engineering Association various pages). By Harlingen, like the rest of Texas and the nation, was entering the grip of the Great Depression. Despite the events of the period, however, phenomenal population and agricultural growth continued throughout the area In the census recorded only persons living in Harlingen.

By the population had grown to During the previous decade, numerous bond issues were passed, which improved the city's infrastructure. They included storm and sanitary sewers, paved streets, expansions to the water, electricity, incinerator, and sewage plants, and a host of other public facilities - including an 18-hole golf course (Allhands By the rnid-l Harlingen's population had more than doubled, reaching Similar growth was experienced in Harlingen's freight volume of valley produce. In the year that SP arrived in the city, only 928 carload shipments of fruit were transported from that location. By and the completion of the construction of the new SP facilities, however, there were In carload shipments were sent; and in Production of canned goods also increased exponentially.

The first statistics from the valley for canned goods from citrus xi production and shipment appeared in and recorded cases ("General Information About Harlingen-Hub of the Lowe Rio Grande Valley of Texas," Harlingen Chamber of Commerce ). Canned vegetable production was first recorded three years later in with a total of cases produced. Canned citrus production for SOUTHERN PACIFIC-COTTON BELT, FREIGHT AGENT'S OFFICE HAER No. (Page 10) that year was listed at cases (General fuformation About Harlingen-Hub of the Lowe Rio Grande Valley of Texas," Harllingen Chamber of Commerce During the early SP continued its expansion by acquiring yet another railway company. In the company purchased the St.

Louis Southwestern Railroad and its popular "Cotton Belt Route." The SSW was the name chartered by the former St. Louis, Arkansas, and Texas (SLA&T) Railroad when it was reorganized in The predecessors of the Cotton Belt and the SLA&T included several earlier railroads. The Tyler Tap, which was chartered in and built from Tyler to the Texas & Pacific rail line at Big Sandy in was taken over by the Texas & St. Louis, which extended it through Texarkana and on to Waco in The lines were reorganized in and renamed the St. Louis, Arkansas & Texas of Texas. This company extended the system to Fort Worth as well as Sherman and Rusk (Zlatkovich :23 ).

SP acquired with its purchase of the SSW direct rail connections from Texas to Memphis, Tennessee, and East Saint Louis, Illinois (Hofsommer Like the T&NO, the SSW had been especially involved in development of what came to be known in Texas as the "truck farming industry." The carrier had conducted surveys of crop production for farmers along its service routes. In one north central Texas town, the company had found that there were in excess of 500 acres of sweet potatoes and acres of peanuts produced on local farms. SSW horticultural agents estimated that even with low yields, this would bring between 50 and 60 carloads of sweet potatoes and 70 carloads of peanuts (valued at in addition to other vegetable crops produced in the area.

The company provided assistance to farmers by bringing in buyers and providing crating and culling services for produce "at the cheapest price possible" (The Grapevine Sun, Vol. 32: 1). The popularity of this practice among small Texas farming communities, made the "Cotton Belt" a period icon, and SP attached the moniker with a hyphen to its own name. Presumably, during this period, the signage at the front of Harlingen's Freight Agent's Office was changed to "Southern Pacific-Cotton Belt." The growth of the valley's farming industry continued to increase steadily throughout the decade.

Although SP suffered declining ridership and freight shipments in other regions along with some devastating failures of subsidiaries, which affected company-wide profits during the Great Depression, the carrier did not experience such conditions in the valley. By the Harlingen was connected to an extensive network of branch lines that fed valley produce and product to two main lines carrying freight out of the city - one operated by MoPac, the other by the T &NO Betts stated: There were two passenger trains ...two through freight trains daily ... and the local switches that came through about twice a day. The passenger SOUTHERN PACIFIC-COTTON BELT, FREIGHT AGENT'S OFFICE HAER No. (Page 11) trains terminated in Brownsville. They originated in Houston and McAllen.

The freight trains terminated in Brownsville and originated in Dallas. The local switches ... originated in McAllen, switched.. .in Harlingen and then went back (Betts personal communication). Harlingen was well-served by the competition between the T&NO and MoPac, even though there was interchange between the two companies. The network of branch lines brought in carload shipments of cotton, vegetables, citrus, cattle, and oil. Betts indicated that "the two railroads cooperated when it was to the advantage of both" companies in the early years, but that "it didn't get better over time" (Betts personal communication). In the local chamber of commerce touted the city as "the rail transportation center of the Lower Rio Grande Valley ...

" with offices of the executive general agent of the Missouri Pacific Lines and the District Freight and Passenger Agent of the Southern Pacific Lines ("General Information About Harlingen-Hub of the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas," Harlingen Chamber of Commerce, Despite the steady growth in valley freight volume during the Great Depression and the following decade, declining passenger revenues forced SP to discontinue that service to Harlingen in Passenger service on the trains was discontinued, one historian stated, "after airline service came to the Valley. It wasn't the buses, it was the airlines that took over passenger movement in the Valley in the early (Aiken personal communication). Betts remarked: "We didn't need a passenger depot [anymore].

When [the building] wasn't used as a passenger depot, they used it as a freight depot. .. [and] freight office. [The depot] was demolished in to get rid of it for tax purposes. After it was [razed,] the freight personnel used the building just to the west of it -- used to be the old traffic/sales office" (Betts personal communication). Another informant stated, "[Railroads] had to pay taxes on those buildings as improvements to the land. After they weren't in use anymore, a lot of railroads decided to demolish the buildings so that they would only have to pay taxes on the land" (Aiken personal communication). T&NO finally was merged into SP along with two other short-line companies in (Hofsommer Harlingen's Freight Agent's Office continued in use.

It appears to have been altered in about and when arches on the north and south facades and a decorative gable vent in the west facade were in-filled, window and door openings reduced, window sash changed, and ceiling and other interior finishes altered. The office communication and other equipment were changed at other indeterminate dates. SOUTHERN PACIFIC-COTTON BELT, FREIGHT AGENT'S OFFICE HAER No. (Page 12) In there were two freight trains and one local running daily, Monday through Saturday. However, on June 23, a notice titled "Changes in the Harlingen Yard Operations" was received by facsimile and posted on the bulletin board at the Harlingen Passenger and Freight Agent's Office. 71-year relationship with the City of Harlingen and the Lower Rio Grande Valley had suddenly ended.

The notice stated: "Effective am, Monday, June 30, clerical TRAIN, ISC, and INTERCHANGE functions will be transferred from Harlingen, Texas to Houston Field Data Reporting Center at 913 Franklin Ave., Houston, Texas and/or DESC in Monterey Park" (Union Pacific Railroad, "Superintendents Special Notice," San Antonio Division, June 23, 1). SOUTHERN PACIFIC-COTTON BELT, FREIGHT AGENT'S OFFICE HAER No. (Page 13) PART II. ARCHITECTURAL STATEMENT A. General Statement: History: The Freight Agent's Office was built in and was altered in about and when masonry arches on the north and south facades and a decorative gable vent in the west facade were in-filled, window and door openings reduced, window sash changed, and ceiling, wall, and other interior finishes altered.

Communication and other equipment were changed at indeterminate dates. Architectural Character: The Freight Agent's Office is a one-story building that is one bay in width and five bays in length. (See photographic documentation HAER 01 through HAER and HAER measured drawings, Sheets 1 through 5. Room numbers are indicated in parentheses). B. Description of the Exterior: Overall Dimensions: The building measures 7'' in length and 26' in width. It features parapets at the gable ends, which are 23 in height. Foundations: Concrete grade beam and concrete piers of indeterminate depth and dimension. Wall Construction: Masonry tile. Walls typically measure in thickness. The exterior walls have been covered with 1" of textured plaster.

Wall System: The wall system consists of masonry bearing walls along the exterior with one masonry tile interior partition ( separating rooms and balloon frame interior partitions. Porches: A small shed roof provides shelter for the main entry, located on the south (front) side (or fa9ade) and is supported by diagonal wood up-bracing. It is covered with corrugated metal. Chimneys: A chimney flue for a wood-burning stove was provided in an office along the east exterior wall. Openings: Doorways and Doors: The south (front) facade is entered through a two-panel wood door, glazed with a single light. It is flanked on either side by sidelights whose lower panels are in-filled with vee groove shiplap sheathing. Another door is located on the south elevation. It is a five-panel wood door.

The north (rear) side is entered through another SOUTHERN PACIFIC-COTTON BELT, FREIGHT AGENT'S OFFICE HAER No. (Page 14) two-panel, glazed wood door. Windows: All fenestrations appear to have been altered. The arched window openings appear to have been in-filled circa with paired or single, six- over-six wood sash. One window opening on the north (rear) side has been covered from the exterior but features one pair of four-light wood casements, which are visible from the interior of a storage room and appear to be original. Replacement windows also include a two-over-two light aluminum sash (ca. that is located on the south (front) side. Two other windows on the west side, or fac;ade, have been completely in-filled and are covered with plaster.

Shape, Covering: The roof is gabled and is covered with clay barrel tile that has been laid with an 11" exposure. The tile ends of the first course have been filled with concrete and painted. Parapet: The gable ends feature shaped parapets whose forms appear to be modeled after two Spanish mission parapet styles: Mission San Antonio de Valero and Mission San Luis Rey de Franca (McAlester The two designs have been combined and flattened and are accentuated with thick and narrow bands of plaster coping. The east side fac;ade retains an original quatrefoil opening, which contains a louvered wood vent. The vent on the west side fac;ade has been enlarged, which obliterated another corresponding quatrefoil.

Cornice: The cornice is formed by two horizontal bands of plaster coping and an engaged metal gutter, which is drained by four molded sheet-metal down spouts. Roof System. Framing: The roof system consists of five wood roof trusses which are 6' 9" in height at the ridge and are anchored into the building's masonry side walls 2' above the finished ceiling. Metal bearing plates are held at the truss ends by two metal bolts. Each truss has vertically sawn wood top and bottom chords, which measure by and eight by vertically sawn diagonal up- braces. Four diameter tie rods hold the top and bottom chords together. They are equally spaced on either side of a center tie rod, which is l" in diameter. The rafters bear on triangular wood seats, which are attached to the top chords of the trusses.

The rafters measure by and are vertically sawn members. There are six on each side of the ridge line, and they are spaced at 24" to 25" centers. There are a total of 12 members. The rafter seats typically measure in width, with 7- SOUTHERN PACIFIC-COTTON BELT, FREIGHT AGENT'S OFFICE HAER No. (Page 15) against the rafters, 9-1/2"against the top chords of the trusses, and 12" left exposed. The building's roof sheathing is by 7" wood tongue and groove. There is vertical bracing for the ceiling joists, which varies in width from and is randomly spaced. The bracing members measure to in thickness. They are vertically sawn and project 1' from the bottom faces of the ceiling joists to the top of the bottom chords of the roof trusses, where they are attached with wire nails. C.

Description of the Interior: Floor Plan: The building is entered through a door on the south (front) side into a foyer that is separated from the agent's work area by a wood counter. Adjacent to and east and west of the foyer are a locker room and the freight agent's office respectively. A hallway is east of the agent's work area and provides access to a storage area women's and men's toilets and a small closet. A door from the north (rear) facade provides additional access to the agent's work area directly from the track way through which also is entered another office and another storage area This room houses the building's communications equipment. Access to a small office is provided -from a doorway in the freight agent's office ( and an exterior door in the south (front) fa<;ade.

Flooring: The flooring is 9" x 9" linoleum tile throughout, laid over a concrete slab of indeterminate dimension. Wall Finish: Interior finishes are painted, textured plaster walls. Along the east exterior wall, in an office is an original plaster base that is 1O" in height and in thickness. It has been trimmed with a l" wood quarter-round and has been painted. All other base boards are wood and measure by They are trimmed with quarter-round. Interior partitions are typically in thickness. They are finished with textured plaster over wood lath on nominally sized wood studs, which are spaced at 16" centers. There is 4' by 8' wood paneling on nominal-sized 1" by 2" wood furring (ca.

which has been added to an office Ceiling Finish: The original ceiling finish is by 5-lli' tongue and groove, circular- sawn wallboard, laid north-south on wood ceiling joists. The ceiling joists are vertically sawn by vertically sawn members, laid east-west on 2' centers. An access panel is located in a storage room that measures i' 4" x l' 4". Replacement ceiling finish is acoustic ceiling tile (ca. The original ceiling height is 10' 9" and ranges from 10' to 10' 8" with the ceiling tile. Doorways and Doors: Interior doors are typically wood with two panels. They SOUTHERN PACIFIC-COTTON BELT, FREIGHT AGENT'S OFFICE HAER No. (Page 16) are surmounted by horizontal transoms which measure 2' by 5' and provide natural light for two offices and and a locker room ).

All doors and windows are cased with by by wood trim. Original wood bathroom doors for stalls are located in the women's and men's toilets Light Fixtures. Electrical: The light fixtures in the office and work areas are fluorescent. All others are single-bulb incandescent. Except for the light switches (some of which are original and flush mounted at heights ranging from 4' to 4' above finished floor), all additional electrical, telephone, and lighting fixtures are surface mounted. Heating: The building is heated and air conditioned. PART IV: SOURCES OF INFORMATION: Original Engineering Drawings: No original architectural drawings were located during the research investigations.

Early Views: One photograph, looking west-northwest, was printed in a supplement to the Valley Morning Star in It shows the Harlingen Freight and Passenger Depot with caption: "A Modem City For Today, Building For Tomorrow." No other photographs of the building were located during the research investigations. Interviews: Betts, Paul. Telephone interview with Rosa Clipper-Fleming. Typewritten transcriptions. McAllen, Texas. 12 November Aiken, Bruce. Telephone interview with Rosa Clipper-Fleming. Typewritten transcriptions. Brownsville, Texas. 13 November, 15 December

Source document Quoted word for word from HAER TX-73. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.

Primary and unpublished sources: "General Information About Harlingen--Hub of the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas." Unpublished manuscript. N.a., Harlingen Public Library. Office of the Chief Engineer, Southern Pacific Company, Houston, Texas. Area Map. "Station to Station Texas and Louisiana Lines" and "Schedule of Property," Sheet November 27, SOUTHERN PACIFIC-COTTON BELT, FREIGHT AGENT'S OFFICE HAER No. (Page 17) Supplement to the Valley Morning Star. Jacinta-Harlingen Publishing Company. Harlingen, Texas. Secondary and published sources: Allhands, Gringo Builders. Allhands Printing. Dallas, Texas. Railroads to the Rio. The Anson Jones Press. Salado, Texas. American Railway Association. Maintenance of Way Cyclopedia. American Railway Engineering Association. Chicago, Illinois.

Hill, Lon C., Jr. "The Passing of the Years in the Rio Grande Valley." In The Year Book of the Lower Rio Grande Valley and Northern Mexico. Mabel Collier Epright Publishers. Donna, Texas. Hofsommer, Don. L. The Southern Pacific, Texas A&M University Press. College Station, Texas. McAlester, Virginia & Lee McAlester. A Field Guide to American Houses. Alfred A. Knopf. New York, New York. Rand McNally & Company. "Rand McNally Handy Railroad Map--Texas." Rand McNally & Company. Chicago, Illinois. Reed, A Hist01y of Texas Railroads. St. Clair Publishing Company. Houston, Texas. Sanborn Map Company. Insurance Maps, Harlingen. Southern Pacific Company. Southern Pacific's First Century. Southern Pacific Public Relations Department. San Francisco, California. Thompson, Jerry.

"Historical Survey." InA Shared Experience: The Hist01y, Architecture and Historic Designations ofthe Lower Rio Grande Heritage Corridor. Edited by Mario L. Sanchez. Los Caminos del Rio Heritage Project and the Texas Historical Commission. Austin, Texas. Zlatkovich, Charles P. Texas Railroads: A Record ofConstruction and Abandonment. Bureau of Business Research. University of Texas at Austin. PART V: PROJECT INFORMATION: SOUTHERN PACIFIC-COTTON BELT, FREIGHT AGENT'S OFFICE HAER No. (Page 18) This Historic American Engineering Record (HAER) project was authorized by the U.S. Surface Transportation Board funded by Union Pacific Railroad, and prepared for DeLeuw, Cather & Company and Myra Frank & Associates, Inc. The field work was conducted by ArchiTexas of Dallas, Texas.

The recording team comprised Stan Solamillo, Bruce Wiland, Tony Martie, and Rosa Clipper- Fleming. Stan Solamillo conducted historical research and building analysis. Rosa Clipper-Fleming conducted and transcribed oral history interviews. Bruce Wiland prepared measured drawings. Tony Martie produced archival photography.